Tag Archives: new year

Hi everyone! I hope you are having a great start to your 2019. Mine is frigid cold, unfortunately. But otherwise, 2019 is starting good on my resolutions.

I’ve talked about resolutions on here A LOT before. I think they are great. I am still solidifying mine for the year. We traveled a bit for the holidays, so I’m starting some of mine today, the second. Some may start next week when my daughter goes back to school and life is in more of a routine. But it’s ok. Just pick any day and start.

Did you make any food or health related resolutions? This is my third year making the exact same resolution – only eat “treats” 2 days per week. The first year I didn’t do well. Last year, I did awesome until May then was pretty hit or miss (mostly miss) for the rest of the year. But that’s ok. I’m not perfect and never will be. But I can keep trying to be better. What are you trying to be better at in 2019?

One goal many people have is to meal plan better. Meal planning is GREAT for your budget, your daily stress level, and your health. You eat more healthful foods if you plan it out. However, planning can be a chore. I do it every week, so I know.

One solution many seek are either menu services or meal delivery services. I tried out Hello Fresh recently, so I thought I’d give a quick review here. (I previously reviewed Blue Apron here.) I am not sponsored by Hello Fresh. I used a discount coupon I got in the mail, but it was a generic coupon code. Hello Fresh doesn’t know I am reviewing them and did not give me anything to do so.

I was fairly impressed with the different recipe selections they had. It seemed a wide variety and food my kids would eat. When the box arrived, I felt like the ingredients were good quality for the price I paid. Of the recipes I got, I’m sharing today about the Cherry Balsamic Pork Chops with Garlic Herb Couscous and Roasted Broccoli.

And the food…

was delicious! I was actually pretty impressed. I’m not always a huge fan of couscous, but this was really good.

Pros:
– The food was good. Close to restaurant quality. Not an average weeknight dinner for us.

– It was fast and easy to make. This recipe in particular was pretty quick and straightforward. I even felt like it worked well. Pork and I have a hard time, but I felt like it cooked in the amount of time it stated (I often find I need to cook pork much longer than suggested cooking times to reach appropriate temperatures).

– I could make this again. I liked that I know exactly how much of all the ingredients were included so I could easily make this on my own if I wanted. Blue Apron was not that way, which I found frustrating. I wouldn’t keep ordering the same thing from a service, so I like getting the recipe for myself.

Cons:
-Price. Hello Fresh is at least $7 per serving. I try to budget around $10 per DAY at my house. I’m not always successful. But more than half of that at dinner kills me.

-Serving sizes. I personally found the serving sizes a little odd. The pork chops and veggies were good sizes. The couscous was a little scarce for 4 servings at my house (and 2 of my servings are little kids). But that just may be my house. A relative of mine says she serves 6 people fine off of 4 serving boxes.

-What is it saving you? Meal box services always kind of confuse me. They provide 2-4 dinners per week. So…I still have to plan and grocery shop for all the other days and meals. To me it just doesn’t move the ball enough to be worth the money. If that doesn’t phase you, great! Go for it!

Hope you are having a great new year! Let me know in the comments your experiences with Hello Fresh and any resolutions you have for 2019!

How are your health resolutions going? Are you going strong or have you fallen off the bandwagon already? No shame either way. I’ve met some of my goals, slipped at others. Here’s the thing I think most people forget: it is a goal for ALL of 2018. So if it takes until December 31 to do it, that is 100% ok.

My #1 advice I can give you if things aren’t going so well is to TRY AGAIN! But before trying again, think about what went wrong. For me, I often make really good goals then don’t set myself up for success. For example, I wanted to eat more vegetables at lunch. But then didn’t buy anything. Oops! So now I bought a bunch of salad stuff that is really easy to throw together at lunch or into my smoothie at breakfast. Magic! I’m eating more vegetables.

Another tip to succeeding is to move decisions from a hard time to an easy time. For example, if you made a resolution to eat breakfast, help yourself out and make things ahead of time. Then, when it is morning and you are rushed and busy it is easy to eat rather than easy to skip it.

This overnight oatmeal is great for that. You mix it and put it in the slow cooker before you go to bed. Then you have warm, healthy breakfast waiting when you get up. This is great for families with a variety of schedules because everyone can just grab some when it is convenient. Just don’t forget to plug in the slow cooker like I did once. That leads to frowns in the morning.

Slow Cooker Overnight Oatmeal (Serves 4-6)

(Sorry no pic right now. Life happens a lot in the morning at my house.)

Recipe Notes: It does HAVE to be steel cut oats. I have used the Coach’s oats from Costco, which work well. You could mix everything straight in the slow cooker. However, it is likely to burn/stick to the sides and bottom and be somewhat difficult to clean. Putting it in the bowl keeps that mess from happening. Also, I think it is a gentler cook in the bowl. So I have cooked mine for longer than 8 hours and it is fine.

Friends. So sorry for the long hiatus again. I’m sort of perennially working on a menu project that someday I’ll be super excited to share with you. And then I had a baby and being a mom of 3 has rocked my world. It’s all good things, but means I’m struggling to get over here to share recipes and tips.

But it’s a new year and my resolution is to post here at least once a week. And in the spirit of resolutions, here are some thoughts on health related resolutions.

1) Have your heard of Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies? It is a framework for seeing how you relate to changing behavior. If you haven’t taken the easy quiz to find out your tendency, you should check it out here. It will you help you actually achieve your resolutions this year.

2) Try to make your resolutions specific enough to measure but broad enough to help you succeed. Here’s what I mean. Don’t say “lose 20 pounds”. That is super specific and there is only 1 way to succeed. On the inverse, “eat more vegetables” is too broad. How do you measure that? Try: Get 2 servings of vegetables at lunch 3 days a week. Specific enough to measure but broad enough that you can have a couple off days or slip ups while still succeeding.

3) Keep overall health and sustainability in mind. One of my friends started a weight loss journey in December that she is chronicling on social media. She had some great success immediately after a week long juice fast. Now as she is back to eating food, her weight loss has stalled. So she is going back to the juice fast. While I don’t think she is going to do any permanent damage, she should try to focus on food and a pattern that is sustainable while losing weight. It may not be fast. But even if she isn’t losing weight, the exercise and healthy food should make her feel better and is better for her body. Keep those ideas in mind.

4) Slow and steady wins the race. As I mentioned with my friend above, achieving health related goals is rarely a quick process. But if you keep at it, you will feel better. You may not succeed in 1 week or even 1 month. But keep on keeping on. If you slip up, laugh it off and try again the next day.

Over the last two years, I’ve waxed long about not setting goals about weight (here and here among many others). Focus on changes for health. If your making healthier choices, you will often lose weight and be able to sustain that weight loss. And even if you don’t lose weight, your health will have improved.

However, I recognize that may not be enough for many of us. This year, I’m included. I admit to having some weight loss on my New Year’s resolutions, thanks to some residual baby weight. I am sticking to my previous statements of not JUST having goals of weight loss. I have several other goals for exercise and diet to help me achieve my weight loss.

I read an interesting article with a paradigm shifting idea on weight monitoring. For years, health professionals have recommended only monitoring weight once a week at most. However, recent studies are showing that daily weight monitoring could be beneficial for weight loss.

The article points out that daily weights can help you see more immediate effects of good or bad choices, maybe helping you stick to diet changes more closely. When you cut out late night snacking and see your weight change quickly, you are motivated to keep that up. If you splurge going out one day and you see your weight spike the next day or two, you become more focused on healthy changes again.

I don’t think it is for everyone, but it is something worth considering. What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Have any nutrition questions? Need help with meal planning or a special dietary need? Send your questions to me at kimberlykmarsh(at)gmail(dot)com, and I will answer them in upcoming posts!

My mom’s family is from the South. According to her, you always eat black-eyed peas on New Year’s for luck in the upcoming year. More black-eyed peas meant more luck. That was the only time of year we ever ate these beans (why they are named peas, I don’t know), and I distinctly remember hating them. The only part I liked was trying to steal one or two of the okra my mom would cook in the beans.

But for some reason, it is stuck in my mind that you eat black-eyed peas on New Year’s. Last year, I found this salsa and really liked it. It’s really tasty, different enough to be interesting but not weird, and really fast to throw together. I was done within 15 minutes, including “help” from my lovely small assistants. And I think there might be something to what my mom said. I ate a lot of this salsa last New Year’s, and it was a pretty great year. Lots of things went my way. If you are looking to have a good 2016, you might want to throw some black-eyed peas in your mix!

Recipe notes: You can use any tomato you like. I just like a ratio of equal parts tomato to beans, so add tomato until you get there. This is basically a recipe for pico de gallo with some black-eyed peas thrown in. You can adjust any ingredient to you preferred level. I have been a bit skimpy on the red onion, because I find them quite strong when raw. The original recipe called for a poblano pepper. It was yummy when I did that, but either pepper works well. You might want a pinch of salt. Just depends on how well you rinse the black-eyed peas, since there is a lot of salt in the can liquid.

I am a big believer in setting goals. The start of a new year is a great time to re-evaluate where you are in many areas of your life and set some goals for improvement. I hope you will set some health related goals for the new year among your other resolutions. Here are some tips I have for making any goals, but they might especially apply to any diet or weight goals.

– Be specific. Don’t set the goal to “eat more vegetables” or “exercise more”. A nebulous goal makes it almost impossible to measure your success. For example, my goal last year was to exercise at least four times each week. It gave me a specific number to aim for, but also didn’t give me an excuse to sleep in every fifth day.

-Think through the execution of your goal. Sometimes you will realize a goal is not possible because you aren’t willing to make the changes necessary. Say you want to pack your own lunch for work every day. Thinking this through, this requires buying extra food for those lunches as well as probably getting up 10-15 minutes earlier to make that lunch. If those aren’t reasonable changes for you, don’t make the goal about packing lunch.

-Put your goals somewhere you will see them frequently. I use a note on my phone for my daily to-do list. I keep my goals at the top of that list. It means I have to see them every time I open my list and helps me remember to put those items among my to-do’s.

-Re-evaluate frequently. You may reach a goal faster and easier than you thought. Great! Challenge yourself to something new. Maybe a goal is harder to attain than you anticipated. This gives you a chance to think of new approaches.

-Call an audible. This kind of goes with the last one. Don’t be afraid to just say something isn’t going to work. If you set the goal to go to the gym three times a week and you discover you hate the gym, call an audible. It’s ok to give up on a goal that is dragging you down. What isn’t ok is to just give up on yourself. Take what you learn from the failed goal to create a new, better goal for yourself.

What are your diet or health related goals for 2015? I’d love to hear them in the comments.

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Disclaimer

This blog is meant to provide general nutrition information and healthful recipes. It is not meant to replace the advice of your personal health care provider. Before making any lifestyle change, I recommend consulting with a doctor or a registered dietitian. If you believe you see an error, please contact me. My goal is to help, not confuse.
If you are seeking personal dietary counseling, please contact me via email. I am happy to counsel you via electronic means (or in person if possible) or to assist you in finding a local dietitian, per your preference.